Listening to Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski speak to reporters during USA Basketball’s recent mini-camp in Las Vegas, the one thing that was made clear was that they want guys on the team that want to be there, and who will sacrifice to make playing for the national team a priority rather than treating it like more of a side project.

That’s why George Hill of the Indiana Pacers might be a long shot to make the squad.

Hill was a late addition to the roster after Kawhi Leonard backed out, but later withdrew due to what he referred to as a scheduling conflict at the time. Colangelo said he’d have to wait to talk to Hill to see if his reasons were legit, and as Hill explained later, he didn’t want to bail on his youth basketball camp that had been on the calendar for quite some time.

Hill knew his decision could potentially affect his chances with Team USA, and a month later he stands by that assessment.

That’s a fine sentiment. Saying it publicly is another matter. Not even Harden did that a couple years ago. He was recorded during a pregame team huddle.

There’s a fine line between self-fulfilling confidence and providing bulletin-board material to the opponent. There’s already some animosity between the teams stemming from the Stephen Curry-Harden MVP race in 2015, and it has bubbled since. No matter how harmless Capela’s remark might have been intended to be, it’ll be met contentiously in the Bay Area.

Oklahoma City traded for Victor Oladipo out of Orlando to be their third scorer, behind Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. It didn’t exactly work out that way, Durant bolted town and when Westbrook went off Oladipo was looking for a place to fit in.

That place turned out to be the Pacers.

Oladipo has been playing like an All-Star this season with Indiana, and last week he was key in snapping Cleveland’s 13 game win streak, then turned around and dropped 47 points on Denver. For the week he averaged 35.7 points a game, shot 45.7 percent from three, plus grabbed 7.7 rebounds per game.